Kate Miller-Heidke Teams Up With The Beards For Awesome Charity Xmas Single

Celebrated Australian chanteuse Kate Miller-Heidke is getting into the spirit of the festive season early, unveiling I'm Growing A Beard Downstairs For Christmas, a new charity single featuring stalwart face-fuzz fanatics The Beards, today ahead of a newly announced national tour in February and March.

I'm Growing A Beard For Christmas had its personnel seeds first sown when Miller-Heidke and The Beards teamed up for her Nightflight album tour following her cover performance of You Should Consider Having Sex With A Bearded Man at the 2012 APRA Awards, finally blossoming into a fully fledged collaboration with this release.

"The Beards opened for me on tour a couple of years ago, and some of their fans heckled me for not having a beard," Miller-Heidke said in a statement. "This song is my revenge on them. Also, it taps into my sick love of Christmas songs. It’s one of the poppiest, most upbeat songs I’ve ever written and it’s my dream that it gets played at Westfield during extended Christmas shopping hours. Also, it's for charity."

To that end, all proceeds for the song — which, yes, addresses "the serious issues of manscaping and clamscaping" while "promoting traditional Christmas values like love, togetherness and not shaving your pubic areas" — will be donated to Bowel Cancer Australia in honour of their annual fund-raiser, Decembeard.

The single will be released officially this Friday, 27 November, via iTunes and several other outlets, but it will also be available for a donation of $2 or more directly from Bowel Cancer Australia's website, which is the best way to ensure your dollars are being spent effectively.

"We really appreciate the creative way Kate has used her new Christmas single to encourage more people to be bowel cancer aware this Decembeard, and help save lives," Bowel Cancer Australia's Claire Annear said in a statement. "Bowel cancer is the second-biggest cancer killer of Australians, and affects men and women almost equally. However, the good news is that it is also preventable, treatable and beatable if detected early. Proudly 100% community-funded, Bowel Cancer Australia relies on the generous support of individuals and organisations to continue its vital work in advocacy, awareness, education, patient support and research."

Check out the lyric video for I'm Growing A Beard Downstairs For Christmas below.

Kate Miller-Heidke will follow up her charity Christmas single with a run of shows getting under way at the Byron Theatre, Byron Bay, with an all-ages show on Thursday 11 February. From there, the roadshow heads through Ipswich (12 February, all ages), Brisbane (14 February), Sydney (18 February, all ages), Gosford (19 February, all ages), Melbourne (20 February), Adelaide (2 March, all ages), Fremantle (4 March), Montrose (9 March, all ages), Upwey (11 March, all ages), and, finally, the Port Fairy Folk Festival, on Saturday 12 March.

Tickets for all shows go on sale this Friday, 27 November, from 10am, with the exception of Adelaide and Fremantle, on sale from Wednesday 2 and Friday 4 December respectively. Passes will be available via a variety of outlets; see theGuide or check The Music App for more information.